Most of the Financial Professionals I have talked to seem to be saying the same thing: "I really don't get this social networking thing". Well if you don't get it, my strong suggestion is...YOU BETTER GET IT!
Why? Because there are two things we know to be true:
1. PEOPLE TALK2. WE KNOW EXACTLY WHERE THEY ARE TALKING THESE DAYS
All you have to do is take a look at these eye-opening growth statistics and you can clearly see why this new opportunity for your business simply cannot be overlooked or ignored:
Facebook has over 300 Million users, and about 600,000 join every day 50% of Facebook users are online every single day The two fastest growing segments are people ages 35 to 55 and women ages 50 and older LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter have over 150 Million users Twitter's growth rate is currently over 750% IT JUST MAKES SENSE:
If you take a look at the business relationships you treasure the most, they mainly consist of your family, friends, loved ones, co-workers and many other people who directly or indirectly support the growth of your business. The truth is that one of the key ingredients to a successful business is the ability to build and maintain high-quality, meaningful, and credible relationships with their clients and within their community. I'm sure this sounds familiar, because THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING!
WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS?
If used properly, social networking becomes an excellent supplemental marketing strategy, serving as the perfect complement to your existing business plan. The reason why is because it is an extremely low-cost way to expose yourself and your business to the most popular places on the Internet, which directly connects you to the various communities, organizations, and groups that you care about.
From what I can conclude, there are essentially five key benefits:
1. Increase your business exposure and visibility
2. Improve your reputation and credibility
3. Increase brand identity and recognition
4. Enhance awareness of your products or services
5. Provide the opportunity to build a network of people and see this network exponentially growth...because PEOPLE TALK are constantly hearing from and talking about YOU
NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS:
Many studies, including ones in which I have personally conducted, prove that most financial professionals simply don't have what they need to be truly successful in Social Networking, and I have broken all of these details that should hopefully help each of us:
FOUR KEY REASONS MOST FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS MAY NEVER REALLY "GET IT"
1. DESIRE:
Most financial professionals enjoy doing key things in their spare time that they are passionate about, such as their careers, hobbies, family, faith, sports, traveling, or whatever makes them genuinely happy. Surveys show that Social Networking is at the bottom of this list of passions. Most professionals today lack the time, skills, and most importantly, the inclination (or that "burning desire") to build, cultivate, and maintain a successful social network...particularly on an ongoing basis. In other words, this is not something most financial professionals "choose to do", but rather they feel like the "have to do it". Every Social Network expert will tell you that success is largely driven in social networking through your ability to constantly offer new, valuable, and useful information and ideas. In fact, this is by far, their biggest challenge in working with their clients, since most don't have enough content and materials to continuously educate your social networks. The reality is that most financial professionals are not gifted or skilled writers or editors, not only for their own industry, but particularly in designing pieces that fit well within the guidelines and purposes of social networks Also, most financial professionals are not familiar with exactly what to write about, what topics to write about, how often to write about new topics, and how often to submit this information to these networks. 2. TECHNOLOGY:
Studies prove that most professionals who are 40 years old or older are at a big disadvantage, mainly because we didn't grow up in the "computer era". Therefore, we were never afforded the luxury of growing up in their early years to capitalize on the advent of the Internet and the every-growing capabilities of computers and technology. The reason this makes this particularly challenging for most financial professionals is because most social experts will tell you Social Networking requires at least 10-15 hours of work each week, along with the aforementioned high level of computer and Internet skills. Purchasing and maintaining all of this technology and computer equipment can be very expensive, as it almost always includes things like training, software, security, database backup, tech support, etc. There is a never-ending need and requirement to ensure you are constantly staying updated on the newest and most innovative state-of-the-art technologies, which can also add to additional time, expenses, and training. These social networks are growing exponentially in size and complexity. In fact, today there are over 70 Social Networking websites. This poses two big challenges: 1. It makes it much more difficult to keep up with all of the latest technologies associated with each social network, like blogging, tweeting, uploading, scanning, managing databases, navigating software, keyword tagging, search engine optimization, filtering spam and viruses, and much more. 2. It becomes vitally important that you know which of these Social Networks are worthwhile for you and your business, and which ones are not a good fit. This is an extremely important, and yet often overlooked, point about the number of social networks you belong to. Many financial professional think they need to be involved in "as many of these networks as possible so they can get the most exposure" when it fact, the reality is the most important focus should be on the quality of these social networks...and NOT the quantity"! 3. INTEGRATION:
If you can believe this, even though most of us have heard of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and maybe a few others, there are approximately 70 different Social Networking websites today...and growing by leaps and bounds! The good news is that this has brought about many new strategies and cutting-edge technologies that are specifically designed to help integrate and coordinate these social networks...which essentially allows them all to be able to "talk to each other", and share information. This is being made available because it helps to minimize your efforts to send a message out to multiple networks, and also attempts to eliminate mass-duplication of content. The bad news is that, with the exception of a tiny minority, most financial professionals are simply not interested (or capable) of investing the time, training, resources, to keep pace with all these new tools. The other harsh reality is that most financial professionals simply don't have the time, desire, and/or the quick and easy access to keep up with all of these new tools that can help them coordinate their efforts among this wide range of social networks. One thing we know for sure is that one of the most critical ingredients to Social Networking success is making sure each of your multiple networks are working in harmony together, saying the same message at the same time. Given the current and future levels of growth in these networks and technology, this dramatically decreases the probability that financial professionals are likely to create the best possible results from these social networks unless they are all simultaneously working together. 4. TIME
The truth is Financial Professionals are not any different from other professionals. They too have a huge struggle to find that "perfect" balance between their everyday life events such as their career, marriage, friends, social events, kids and their multiple events, health and fitness, hobbies, sports, email, etc. Today's difficult economic environment has clearly played a big factor in making it even more challenging for Financial Professionals to find that "proper" balance in our lives between family, work, and other "life events". These restrictions even further limit our ability to set aside a few hours each day to work on these social networks. The harsh reality is that Social Networking requires a serious and dedicated effort and many hours of your personal time every day as a result of these sophisticated networks, technologies, and constant communication with a large number of changing people. Among some of the extremely time-consuming Social Networking tasks are: regularly writing emails/blogs/tweets/updates, constantly creating target marketing campaigns, joining a large number of groups and networks, contributing regular and valuable information to these groups and networks, learning how to adapt to unique groups of people, regularly researching and provide new and current content, closely monitoring and managing an increasing group of friends or followers, working in harmony with the many different social networks, keeping up-to-date with the newest and most innovative technologies, etc. IS EVERY FINANCIAL PROFESSIONAL DOOMED FOR SOCIAL NETWORKING FAILURE?
Of course not! However, unless you are one of the rare few financial professionals with an extensive background in technology, a vast array, access, and the ability to keep updated with the newest and most innovative technology tools and resources, an extensive understanding of all these 70+ social networks, and which one is right for you, a large amount of free time, and a burning passion to become a social networking expert, your best bet is to choose one of two routes:
1. Set your expectations low, work at often as you can, and just have fun.
2. An alternative is to seek the help of the wide array of social networking companies who can help do the large majority of this for you. This frees up much of your time, gives you the ability to maximize your results and efficiencies, and can also dramatically expand your social network and business opportunities.
MY PERSONAL SOCIAL NETWORKING STORY:
I decided to take advantage of the second option above. I hired a professional company who does this for a small monthly fee. Like many of you, I am busy and cheap, so my focus was on paying a small monthly cost, having NO long-term commitment, and having almost all of the work done for me. And so far, I have been extremely pleased with the professional support and progress I have made!
Granted I've only been doing this for about two months now, but if you look at the number of connections I have made, the people I have been introduced to or connected with, and the people that have contacted me, it is truly amazing. Other benefits include joining multiple networks of people and groups, "branding" my name/firm/products/services, and also developing partnerships and relationships that are extremely valuable.
HOW DID I FIND THE "RIGHT" PROFESSIONAL HELP?
I performed extensive research on what types of professional Social Networking Companies are out there today, and who are among the industry leaders. I looked at everything including cost, contractual commitments, what would be required on my part, and what could I expect. I finally chose a company when I saw an impressive interview with their President on Fox News who worked as a Business Coach and Social Media Specialist for major celebrities and corporations for over 25 years..
I strongly suggest if you decide to seek professional help that, like I was, you do some extensive research on your own. With the geometric growth potentials that lie ahead in this great new business opportunity, this is an extremely important decision. Or, in an effort to save you valuable time, I am happy to provide each of you the findings of my results, the company I am currently using, as well as several companies I would also suggest you look into, and which I feel comfortable recommending. So by all means, please don't hesitate to call or email me if I can help in any way.
I hope I was able to help you see why most Financial Professionals not only "don't get it", but even if they think they do, it is very unlikely they are "getting the most out of it". And if you go back and reread everything I talked about above, it should be very easy to understand why most financial professionals are simply not cut out for this kind of stuff...for a wide variety of reasons.
I can honestly tell you that for me personally, this whole Social Networking world has opened my eyes to a new way of growing my business that has extended far beyond my wildest dreams. And the truth is, just a few months ago I really "didn't get it" at all.
So the morale of the story is this; most financial professionals are just like me. They don't really "get" how social networking TRULY works, they probably never will, and their best bet is to work with a professional. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.